Grace is 2!!

I know ... I'm a month late, but it has been a busy month ...

My little girl turned 2 years old!  I know it sounds cliche, but I can't really believe how fast it has gone.  It seems like yesterday that she was a tiny baby in my arms and now she is running everywhere with quite the immagination and the stubborness of both of her parents combined.  

Grace and Eric have birthdays only a few days apart so we decided to have friends over for a BBQ on their birthday weekend.  It was a crazy rainy day, but the rain stopped just in time and we were able to hang out outside while the kids played in the water.  Turned out to be a lot of fun!

We did presents and cake on Grace's actual birthday ... she and Eric shared an ice cream cake ... I even let Eric pick it out.  Grace did much better eating this cake than she did last year.

Then it was time for presents ... she likes to open them, but she tends to take her time so we had to prod to be done for bedtime.  She tends to tear the paper off in tiny pieces very slowly so it took forever ...

and then by the time we got to the last present she had to take breaks to play with toys before she would actually finish it.

We love this little girl and could not be more grateful to have her in our family!

In case you were wondering ...

I get asked all the time where Grace's blue eyes and blonde hair come from.  I have always said that she looks a lot like my mother, but her mouth is Eric's.  After seeing this picture of my mom I am convinced, but I will let you judge for yourself ...

Grace

Her Grandma Kesler

She is Getting SO Big!!

It seems like all of the sudden I am losing my baby.  She is inching closer to her 2nd birthday and she has decided to start proving it.  In the last two weeks all of the sudden ...

She preferes the big kid swings ...

She takes lots of risks ...

She had her first popcicle all by herself ...

She has gone from just trying on my shoes to wearing my heels all over the house ...

And, biggest of all ... she has started sleeping in a big girl bed (by big girl bed, I mean a mattress on the floor while she gets used to it.)

I love this little kid!  She is so sweet and getting big way to fast.

Gracie and The Soccer Ball

Grace has officially discovered the outdoors!  She is her mama's girl and would prefer to be outside than inside at all times.  While exploring the backyard with her dad she discovered Cletus' soccer ball.  What you need to know is that Cletus likes to kick around this ball with his head and try to catch it in his mouth and it gets stuck in his teeth so it is really a gnarled and disgusting ball.  Grace decided she likes this ball.  She figured out how to kick and chase it ... but decided it couldn't be done without dragging daddy along as well as her baby.

I was fairly amused sitting on the porch watching all the action.

Morning Routine

Grace is a funny kid ... no denying that.  She comes up with things to do that just baffle me, but one of my favorite things that she does has become a part of her morning routine.

Most mornings she likes to play in her crib for a little while so I just let her and when I go in to get her out one of the first things that she says is "doggie".  She immediatly runs out of her room and looks around until she finds Cletus.  This was them together this morning.

She leaned over to give him a kiss and then layed down to talk to him for a minute.  She doesn't really feel like talking to me in the morning, but she always has to check in with Cletus.

Grace's Birthday

I know I am really late at getting to this but last week just got really busy.  Grace has a small and simple first birthday.  She opened presents with mom and dad and Grandma Roundy via skype.  She got a music table, walker, some clothes, and an alphabet for the refrigerator.   She loves to open presents and had fun playing with her new toys.

Here is the alphabet I made her.  It was a fun little project.  (I made another one for my nephew and I hope he likes it too.)

Our friends the Timmin's came over for dinner.  We had some good macaroni and cheese which Gracie loved!  She wasn't so sure about the cake though.  She kind of looked at it for a while.  Touched it, and then didn't like the frosting sticking to her hands.  We couldn't really get her to eat the cake until I scraped the frosting off and then she liked it.  

So we gave her some birthday cake ice cream and she loved that!

And here she is in her post birthday dinner bath.  

We love this little girl and had a lot of fun celebrating her birthday.  I can't believe it!  It has gone so fast, but she is more and more fun every day.

I do have videos, but they are too long to post so if you want to see them let me know.

Grace and Her Walker

This one if for Grandma Roundy.  Grace has taken steps on her own and continues to do more and more but she stills prefer to walk with assistance which means we do endless laps around the living room so I am grateful for this toy.  At first she was afraid of it, but now she is really enjoying it. 

Grace Loves Water!

It was pretty warm the other day and Grace wanted to be out, but we were trying to get things done at home so didn't feel like taking her to the waterpark (which she loves) so we just blew up the little pool Grandma got her and let her play outside.  She loves to just sit and splash.

And she has no fear of sticking her face in the water.  Not sure, but maybe she has been watching Olympic swimming too much.

Here is a quick video of her excited in the pool.

Twelve Months

Time for Grace's final onesie picture.  

Grace is officially one year old!  That year went so fast!  It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that we brought home our little tiny baby girl. 

And now she is all grown up!  She took her first steps a couple days ago.  She has been crawling around everywhere and cruises along all the furniture in the house.  She gets so excited for dad to come home; she makes he run laps with her around the living room.  She is just such a happy child and loves people! (and they tend to love her)

Grace has mastered her basketball hoop and is working on her building skills.  She is SO busy with toys and playing and LOVES books!  She goes into her room and sits at the bookcase and pulls our books and looks at them constantly.  I hope she keeps that one up.

Just a couple more pictures ... the first one is from the 4th of July (I never posted) and the second is just her when she wakes up ... she can't leave her crib without bringing and animal or a blanket with her.

We LOVE this little girl!  Happy birthday Gracie!

Grace's Birthday Pictures

On the day before her birthday I took Grace to a local portrait studio to have some pictures taken.  It was much more of an experience than I would have imagined it would be.  My typically ultra friendly, super hammy baby totally went blank in front of the camera.  It took a lot of prodding to get her to smile much at all (if you spend much time with her you will know that this is not her disposition at all).

Then, shocker of all shockers, at one point when we have her standing up next to this block, Grace turns to me and takes two steps all on her own to get to me!  Grace took her first steps right then and there!!  I about fell over I was so shocked.  Pretty sure the photo guy didn't know what to do with either of us at that point.  That was all the walking that she did there, but it was amazing!  She did do a couple more for daddy that night so he didn't totally miss out.

Eleven Months

I can't believe Grace is already 11 months old, but she is.  One more month and I will have a toddler on my hands.  Grace just keeps growing and getting bigger.  She is SO tall these days!  

She is a very active baby and does not like to sit still at all.  This past month she has mastered crawling, started cruising and won't sit!  She is keeping her mama busy!  Trying to take her picture this month was pretty tricky ... she wasn't having it at all.  She is taking over her feeding and eating a lot more table food and a lot less baby food.  She has been working on her two top front teeth for the last three weeks ... it looks like they are about through which will make this momma very happy!

We had a lot of activity this month ... we got to start going to the water park and Grace loves water!  She just splashes and laughs and LOVES the wave pool!  We just got back from vacation with Eric's family to North Carolina where we spent a lot of time on the beach and she loved that too!  She got lots of attention from Grandparents and Aunts so it was a good time.

Here is Grace crawling to get her crazy laughing dog.

She is a fun kid ... we love having her!

Ten Months

Better late than never, right?

Our little Gracie had her ten month birthday about a week and a half ago.  She is getting so big and changing so much!  At her 9 month appointment, which was at about the 9.5 month mark she was 30" tall and weighed 23 lbs 2 oz.  I moved her into 12 month sized clothes at about 8.5 months and she has grown out of those and I am moving her into 18 month clothes this week.  I can't keep up with this little weed of mine.

She has developed all sorts of new skills.  She rolls all over the place and has started scooting backwards and pulling herself up on things.  She is wanting to feed herself more and more and tries to take the spoon from me at every chance she can.  She has finally mastered the sippy cup and loves it!

I am pretty sure she is working on some more teeth.

She loves to be outside.  Here she is with her daddy and a flower in her hair.  I really love how she scrunches up her nose when she smiles!

This one was from lunch today.  Just in case you were wondering what happens when you let a baby feed herself baked beans.  She is pretty proud of herself.

We love this little girl.  She really has the happiest disposition.  The loves people, and loves to smile at everyone.  She has a polite fake laugh which really cracks me up.  She is the biggest ham I know!

Nine Months

Our little girl is nine months old today.  Time really does fly.  She has gone from being my tiny little baby to becoming a little person with a personality all her own.

She is getting so big (I don't know how big exactly)!  She is so anxious to start moving around on her own.  She jumps while she is in my arms, and try to jump out too.  She still isn't rolling all over the place but she has decided to prove that she can.  She is into everything.  I really have to keep my eyes on her when we go shopping because she tries to grab everything off the shelves.  

She really loves her toys ... her favorites these days are her hippo and her frog.  She just loves to grab and cuddle them and then try to eat them.  She LOVES peek-a-boo and will play it with anyone!  She entertains other kids at the YMCA by showing off her skills.  She even plays peek-a-boo with aunts and cousins via skype.  Really it is her favorite thing. 

She is just such a happy and loving baby!  She loves to laugh and smile.  She is a total ham and knows when people are looking at her and she plays it up.  We love our little girl, she brings a lot of joy into our home!

Easter

I am a little late with this I know, but we had a quite Easter Sunday.  Eric didn't have meetings in the morning so he got to be home with us.  We had a nice breakfast and then we all got ready for church.    This is Gracie before church in her Easter dress.  I was a slacker so it isn't anything fancy, but it is springy so fun.  If you are interested here is the tutorial I used to make it.

Here Gracie is after church on the lawn.  She has never experienced grass before so she is still deciding how she feels about it.

Daddy is showing her the tulip that is starting to open.

Gracie is a pro at presents ... here she is checking out her Easter basket.

She got some new hair bows and baby jewelry ... she tried them all on!

It was a nice quiet Sunday.  We had friends over for dinner which was fun.  It gave us an excuse to cook a big Easter dinner.  

Eight Months

Time just moves too fast!  Grace turned 8 months old yesterday.  This little girl had an eventful month.  She took 3rd flight.  Grace and I went to Idaho for a week to visit my family.  We got to spend a lot of time with my parents, sisters and their kids.  Gracie got lots of experience interacting with other kids.  I haven't flown with her since she was about 3 months old.  It was easier when she was littler.  Still, she was really good.  Grace was also introduced to Cherrios and graham crackers.  She has mastered the pincher move and is now feeding herself quite well.  This last week was the big one ... Grace had both of her bottom teeth break through!  She is no longer our toothless baby.

We sure love this little girl!  She is getting so big and growing so fast, but she is SO happy and fun!  She really just makes me smile and laugh.

Seven Months

Grace turned seven months old yesterday.  Time really does fly!  She is getting so big and so active and really developing a personality all her own.  She is such a happy baby and is just so much fun to play with.  I feel so lucky that I get to stay home and be with her all day.  Don't get me wrong it can be exhausting, but it is wonderful!

Gracie is still being as stubborn as always and refuses to roll over.  She can get up on her knees a little bit and scoots around some, but not crawling.  She thinks she is going to work on some teeth, she chews on anything she can get her hands on including her hands all day.  She is getting more and more interactive with me and her toys.  She enjoys just sitting on the floor surrounded by toys and experimenting with all of them.  Grace has discovered her feet and loves to play with them and stick them in her mouth, socks and all.  

Getting her to sit still for a picture was a little tough, but this is her ... getting so big!

To celebrate her seven month birthday Grace started swimming lessons at the YMCA yesterday.  She seemed to love the water and a natural at kicking as we moved around.  It was a fun new experience.  I am excited to go next week!  Plus, she is just super cute in her swimsuit!

And here is just another video of her being funny.  We sure love this baby!

She Is Silly!

We have been blessed with the happiest baby that the world has ever seen!  She is always very smiley and laughs at everything.  So, I thought I would post a quick video of her jumping, laughing, and playing with Cletus.

*Yes she whacked the dog, and yes he puts up with it.

The Little Pianist

Our little Gracie loves the piano.  Really she loves music in general.  She sings along to the radio in the car and loves any toy that plays music.  So a while ago I sat her down with me at the piano and she would touch the keys and sing while I played.  But, being who she is, she is a quick learner.  She instinctively knows that when she sits down at the piano, she puts her hands on the keys and always looks up at the music while she plays.

Now she sits up at the piano all by herself and just plays.   We are going to need Uncle Ricky to teach her lessons soon if she keeps advancing at this pace. :)

It Fits

Sorry, I meant to post this one last Sunday.  Gracie got this cute little dress and hair clip from her cousin Carolyn for Christmas.  Her Aunt Sarita made it for her.

Anyway, she wore it to church last Sunday and it fit perfectly and is super cute.  Thanks Sarita!

Someone is getting bigger :)

This little one had her six month check up on Wednesday.  She has officially grown 1" and gained almost 4 pounds.  She is now a happy 26.5" long and 19 lbs 8 oz.

In other new developments this week she had juice for the first time and drank it from a sippy cup (never used one of those before either :))